Transition management for sustainable consumption and production

Consumption constitutes a big problem for sustainable development. For low-income countries, sustainable development means more consumption. For rich countries it means different consumption, not reductions in material consumption. Governments and people in rich countries are just as committed to growth as people in low-income countries, perhaps even more. For a consumer there is no such thing as enough consumption. This makes sustainable consumption almost an oxymoron because how can we achieve lower environmental impact if we are consuming more? ‘Green’ products help to reduce environmental impacts. To achieve even greater reductions together with other sustainability benefits, more is needed than product changes: we need system innovations: that is, transformations and changes in systems of provision and behaviour (Rotmans et al. 2000; Kemp and Rotmans 2004; Smith et al 2005; Weaver et al. 2000).